Written by And Directed by Jacques Audiard
Emilia: "Losing a loved one is a tragedy. Losing their remains is a life sentence! A life sentence!"
Every awards season will at least have one movie that will get a lot of nominations and wins at the expense of other movies and to a point where some will actively root against it. Last year it was Maestro and this year, it's this one.
Yup, this Spanish/French speaking musical comedy crime thriller has managed to stoke a lot of ire over the last few months and I can see why it has done that. On the other hand, I kind of liked it a little more than I thought I would do.
Despite being called Emilia Perez (Karla Sofia Gascon), oftentimes it felt like this movie was more about Perez's savvy lawyer, Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldana). Whatever you feel about this movie, there's no denying that Saldana has earned the various nominations she's been amassing this season. I've always liked her as an actor but she's kind of outdone herself here in such a divisive project.
Rita as a lawyer has defended some awful people, including a man whose abuse caused his wife to kill herself. She also got roped into a meeting with infamous cartel kingpin Juan "Manitas" Del Monte (Gascon) who needed her help with faking his death and undergoing gender-affirming surgery. Thus, Emilia Perez.
As Emilia, the former wanted to make amends for their past misdeeds and that meant reuniting with Rita to get things moving along while also posing as Del Monte's sister in order to be in his former wife Jessi's (Selena Gomez) life along with their children. While it would take Jesi until the end of the movie to figure who Emilia really was, their kids seemed to pick up on their father's transition a lot quicker.
Now in terms of trans represention, I can see why this film has caused controversy. Emilia might want to make up for their past misdeeds and while there's a hint of a budding relationship between her and Epifanía Flores (Adriana Paz), ultimately Emilia came afoul of her ex-wife and the latter's lover, Gustavo Brun (Edgar Ramirez). The end of all those characters was rather brutal with Rita being the one to pick up the pieces.
- Mark Ivanir had a good supporting role as Dr Wasserman, the one responsible for Emilia's transition.
- Karla Sofia Gascon had wished to portray the title character both pre and post surgery.
- Standout music: Nonsensical lyrics to one side, it's got to be El Mal. Zoe Saldana's performance alone in that scene was something else.
- Chronology: The movie goes from Mexico City, Bangkok, Tel Aviv, London and Switzerland with a four year gap.
Look, I absolutely get the derision for Emilia Perez and despite some glaringly problematic elements to it, I actually kind of enjoyed it in a weird way. Or at the very least, I found it fascinating in a chaotic, messy way and was never bored by it. Karla Sofia Gascon and Selena Gomez are good but Zoe Saldana was on another level, performance wise.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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